Using up my fabric stash, one scrap at a time!

Starting off the New Year with A Blog Giveway!

To celebrate achieving my target of 111 projects in 2011, I am starting off the new year with a blog giveaway, as my way of thanking all my loyal readers, all those people who took the time to read through my posts, leave lovely comments, come back time and again and support and encourage me. The giveaway is for one little ruffle purse (pictured) and two nesting fabric dishes (also pictured). All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on my blog, and the giveaway will be open for a week, until midnight on Monday 10th January 2012 GMT. There is one condition though, your comment has to be relevant to the post, rather than just your name and email address. I want to read real comments, not just people marking their places for the giveaway. I think that’s fair!

Anyone in the world is welcome to enter, and you can comment as many times as you wish. Just make sure you enter a valid email address in the email address bar when you leave your comment. The winner will be drawn at random on Tuesday 11th January 2012 and notified by email before I post about it on here.

Congrats on hitting your goal of 111 in 2011, I love reading all the things you post. The ruffle purse and fabric dishes are the neatest thing I have ever seen. I have a question the dishes do you have to make them out of denim or can you just use fabric? Cause I was wanting to figure out how to make them.

Hi! The fabric dishes would work using any fabric, as long as you either used firm stiff fabric or lined the fabric with another stiffer fabric and/or stiff interfacing. If I was making one out of thin cotton fabric I would interface both pieces of fabric with stiff iron-on interfacing and then also sandwich the inner and outer fabric between some thicker scrap fabric like canvas. Hope that helps!

Congratulations on your 111 projects!! As you know, you have inspired me to start my own blog, so thank you for that. I’ve really enjoyed reading some of your projects and look forward to reading more, and joining you again in a few months’ time for Christmas 2012 preparation!! 😉

I accidentally found your Blog quite late in 2011 and I wanted you to know I have really enjoyed reading it. You and your Blog have been instrumental in rekindling my love of everything Sewing. Your little ‘ruffled purse’ would fit perfectly in my handbag :o)

Congratulations on reaching your goal! I love reading your blog and you’ve also inspired me to get back into sewing (I’m doing a refresher course at a local craftshop soon as I fear my sewing skills, unused since I was in my teens, are a bit rubbish!). I’d love to win either of these gorgeous things!

I just read another blog about being organized so when you sit down to work on a piece or journal everything is ready to go and now you offer these wonderful bags. The fabric dishes look especially enticing for storing bits and bobs on my shelves. Wonderful!
Thank you.

I love your ‘astonishing splashes of colour’ posts as a photography addict I found your choices of pictures really interesting. Although my favourite colour is green I loved the orange pictures, so vibrant! It is great to find a decent sewing blog (yours) on WordPress as there aren’t a great number. I love the tutorials, I’m another great bag maker. I really like your fabric dishes, they would be ideal to sit by my sewing machine to hold bits and pieces and the ruffle purse is pretty. Great blog, look forward to reading lots more.

Wow! As someone who has a lot of crafts projects on the back burner, I am so impressed by your 111 projects in one year. Your blog has inspired me to complete mine. I really want to try the wallet tutorial next.

Well, wow! As someone who can just about mend small holes & seams in clothes (and who is still harbouring an unfinished coolbag project from secondary school, mumble mumble years ago), I’m taken aback at the apparent ease and speed with which you turn these wonderful items out! I don’t have the patience (nor the skill!) but I do enjoy experimenting with baking and other food making. In fact, I’ve just begun to dabble in butter & ice-cream making with pleasing results! I shall continue to follow your interesting blog with intrigue though and who knows, I may even find one where I think, ‘Hmm, I might actually be able to make that’! Keep up the good work! 😉

when you make these, how do you stop the tab ends (the little squares you sew over the zip ends) from being all crumpled into the side seems? Do you know what I mean? Because when I make them with oil cloth I tend to get a lot of pulled stiches accross the seems as the tab bits bulk out the ends?

I Emily, I know what you are describing, and I have experimented bit and now have a way of sewing it all together where I make sure the zipper end and the fabric tab are folded over into the lining fabric, rather than into the outer fabric, this makes a neater finish. Does that make sense? I will try to find some pictures illustrating this…

You have the most beautiful BLUES! To be blue – they are very happy. My favorite color is blue – Cobalt blue – a blue so bright and so blue it hurts your eyes to look at it 🙂 I have several pieces of cobalt blue glassware and it is always cheerful to me! 🙂 Another thing I love are the blue birds of happiness… do you have any of those? You can search them out on the net – I sit them on my windowsill and they sparkle and shine with the light coming in – always makes me happy – even love the name … Blue Bird of Happiness 🙂
Maybe it’s because I am a “Byrd” that I love the blue bird so much?
Happy New Year!